We’ve heard a lot about Age Discrimination legislation but it’s small beer compared to the real problem concerning age and the workplace. It’s writ large for all to see and the demographic figures are stark and unchangeable, but for some reason the realisation is slow. There aren’t - and increasingly won’t be - enough skilled young workers to go round so we’re going to have to keep and make better use of the older ones for longer.

How can this be when it seemed only a short while ago that early retirement was the pattern with cheery predictions that in the future no one would work past 50? Well, the situation has arisen for a number of reasons: the UK birthrate has long been declining, longevity has increased dramatically over the past couple of generations, and our training provision has failed to keep pace with economic need. To quote Lord Leitch(1), “Our nation’s skills are not world class and we run the risk that this will undermine the UK’s long-term prosperity”.

For the first time in 2006 there were more 55-64 year olds than 16-24 year olds in the UK (2) with predictions that from 2010 onwards the number of young people reaching working age will begin to fall by 60,000 every year. Combine this with forecasts showing that for the next decade the UK will need over two million new entrants to the workforce, and it’s evident that in large part the demand will have to be met through most adults working longer, or returning to the workforce post-retirement.

What this means is that whatever your sector, size, or nature of business you need, as a matter of priority, to address the following issues:

1. How can you identify and measure the current and future benefits to your business of retaining and developing older workers?
2. What are you going to do to persuade your older workers to work longer?
3. How can you address their specific needs without discriminating either for or against them as individuals or a group?
4. What sort of training and development support will you provide and why, and how will you ensure that older workers participate, profit and learn?
5. How will you address issues of complacency and resistence to change and achieve maximum engagement?

Although this article focuses largely on training, they are inextricably linked; if you are going to be sucessful you need to work on them all. The good news is you’re not alone. Already a considerable amount of research has been undertaken showing that organisations introducing flexible working policies and abolishing retirement ages can retain older workers longer and recruit them back into the workforce. But comparatively little guidance is available about what happens then, although evidence is starting to emerge from flagship employers large and small, including organisations as diverse as Aberdeen City Council, Barclays, Domino’s Pizza, Football Association Wales (FAW) Trust, and GlaxoSmithKline.(3)

What’s the problem?

So what’s the problem with training older workers and is it a case of honing champions or herding cats? Well, both. Obviously the above mentioned evidence is highly experiential but what it demonstrates powerfully is that as a group – and as individuals – the best older workers are a hugely valuable asset demonstrating high levels of reliability, motivation, and self-management. However, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that ‘older workers’ have little more in common with each other than their age. There are trends and tendencies relating to their position and behaviour but in terms of engaging, learning, and applying that learning they are as individually diverse as they always were. There can be no ‘one size fits all’ solution.

That there is a continuing reluctance to develop older workers is incontrovertible. Studies have shown that workplace training declines with age (4) with recent research showing that HR managers regard employees over the age of 50 as poor investments when allocating training provision.(5) This is partly due to a feeling that investment in older people will result in little payback (‘they’ll retire in a couple of years’) but also a mismatch between older workers’ expectations and HR professionals’ awareness of their needs. Age Discrimination legislation was hoped by many to be a turning point but in fact further research (6) has highlighted that the majority of employers have done little or nothing to change their employment policies and practices followng its introduction in 2006.

Stereotypes and misconceptions provide further barriers to later life training. An unspoken but commonplace prejudice is that older people are slower to learn, resist change, and don’t relate well to younger people. In fact, this is completely unfounded. A large and growing amount of evidence suggests that most jobs can be done as effectively by a 70 year old as a 35 year old, and most people in their 60s are more productive than those in their early 20s. People in their 60s may process information differently than those in their 20s but they are likely to be just as capable (7).

And, once barriers are broken down, age goes out the window, “I thought I’d have problems managing someone thirty years older than me, but it’s never been a problem. Christine is generous with sharing her knowledge and is the most flexible member of the team. She says she’s happy for me to be in the management firing line while she gets on with the work.” (Customer Service Manager, aged 27 talking about a team member nearing sixty).

Employee engagement can be an issue for older workers simply because they’ve been doing their jobs for longer and frequently feel they’ve ‘seen it all before’ and have ‘learnt enough’. In fact, reflecting the working population as a whole, older workers comprise a spectrum between highly loyal, creative and flexible to intransigent, difficult and disaffected. This latter group can be almost impossible to reach and tend to exist in situations where there has been weak or poor management, and little individual participation. In these situations a complete cultural overhaul may be required before individual attitudinal change can emerge. And this doesn’t apply only to those in routine jobs. To quote a senior manager, aged 56, from a large public sector organisation. “I like my job and I’m very good at it. The only problem is, it lacks any sort of challenge. I’m seriously bored.”

Yet the most engaged are real champions. Findings from an employee engagement study which surveyed 40,000 employees from a broad range of UK industries showed that those over 55 demonstrate the highest levels of employee engagement (59% compared to an average of 52%) with equally high levels of loyalty (58% saying they wanted to be with their organisation in three years’ time).(8)

Where’s the benefit?

Businesses who have taken steps to tackle age related issues report a number of large scale benefits including:

- improved staff retention rates
- higher morale
- higher productivity
- fewer short-term absences
- a better public image
- access to a wider customer base and
- retention of a wider range of skills and experience (9)

An additional benefit is that mature workers make excellent mentors. Many highly skilled older workers still retire completely and abruptly, taking with them valuable skills and knowledge which companies have done little to extract from them or encourage them to pass on. Developing older workers as mentors and vehicles for succession planning not only addresses this problem but provides jaded older employees with new impetus to continue.

And best of all, in many situations they are committed to customer service and satisfaction and are often paragons of excellence in communication, particularly with customers of their own peer group or older. To quote Becky Mason, Senior Policy and People Manager of BT “Mixed age teams provide us with the best opportunity to truly understand our customers’ needs and reap the benefits of the rich diversity of views, opinions and experiences.”

‘Good employer’ ethos

Case studies of organisations which are successfully developing and training an age neutral workforce show that they tend to exhibit other characteristics of ‘good employers’, for example, they may have Investors in People accreditation or have been recognised as a ‘Best Company’ (10) What this underlines is that those companies which show they value their people through excellent communication, leadership, team-working, and rewards will be those in which employees of all ages will be prepared to contribute more.

For once, small is beautiful. Although smaller companies generally spend less on employee development and have done least to implement age neutral policies, their general ethos results in greater employee satisfaction. In a recent survey (11) small companies were rated more highly than large by employees for communication, line management, reward, recogniton, senior leadership and training. The survey’s authors conclude that “in big companies it is too easy to feel like a small cog in a big wheel”, and suggest that “large organisations will benefit if they manage to make their staff feel like they are part of the fold and that they are making a real difference”.

So what this indicates is that ethos, not age, is most significant in achieving success. Scotguide, a small but highly successful Glagow tour company renowned for its pro-age policies confirms this. Chief Executive Alex Pringle comments: “From Scotguide’s perspective, this is about employing a mix of people in an environment that isn’t dominated by hierarchy, but where the emphasis is on the skills of the individuals, not their age. Our employment policy helps to alter attitudes among younger workers as well, especially when they have preconceived ideas about what it’s like working with people old enough to be their parents.”

First steps

So where to start when it comes to developing older workers? One of the biggest issues which has emerged from the implementation of Age Discrimination legislation and the move to abolish mandatory retirement ages has been the need for effective performance management, particularly of those who previously may have been allowed to ‘coast towards retirement’. Accordingly, at the heart of a better system must lie a rigorous review and appraisal system including the identification of business and individual benefits to be gained from training older workers. In broad brush terms, this means focusing on:

• Assessing the skills and knowledge required of the workforce regardless of age, seniority, and status. Ultimately this may involve developing individuals and teams that operate outside of traditional ‘departmental’ boundaries and the implementation of age neutral policies.
  
• Adopting a strategic, organisation wide approach to the management and development of a flexible and diverse workforce, including their transition to retirement, which may take place over many years.
  
• Drafting robust and appropriate contracts of employment that enable the incorporation of individual working practices whilst ensuring all employees adhere to fair and non-discriminatory standards and support the values of the business.
  
• Adopting proactive communication systems. Individual employees need to be challenged to be open about their needs and intents for their final working years so that, with their employers, they can create an appropriately flexible working life.
  
• Measuring outputs against targets, regularly, fairly and objectively, on a group and individual basis.
  
  

What type of development and why?

As previously mentioned, older workers are as disparate a group as any other sector of the population which means a huge number of variables will have to be taken into account when deciding what type of development opportunities to provide. However there are a few particularly pertinent issues worth considering, including:

• Skills or development? Depending on work type, training may be mandatory or optional and involve consistency or change, i.e. is the individual being trained in order to maintain or increase existing skills, or diversify into an entirely new area? Always develop the best person for the job regardless of age.
  
• Formal or informal learning? Older workers tend to have fewer formal qualifications than younger individuals and may not have spent as much time in formal learning environments. They may have a misconception of ‘training’ as prescriptive ‘chalk and talk’ and may balk at the idea of being taught by those they feel lack experience. Consider blended learning including on the job training, work shadowing, mentoring, and online learning.
  
• Training or coaching? – particularly in a situation where fairly dramatic attitudinal change is required, one to one coaching can be of enormous benefit in helping individuals identify internal barriers to progress, as well as providing improved motivation.
  
• Work or retirement-related? Most training and development will relate to the skills required by an individual in the workplace, but very valuable support can be provided by employers in the form of pre-retirement planning sessions. Traditionally these have focused heavily on financial planning, and possibly health. Now the emphasis should be on whole-life planning for the remainder of one’s life starting with relatively young employees and helping them to achieve work-life balance, financial security, and appropriate career development.
  
  

Rules for success

Many of the issues associated with developing the over 50s are, when analysed, no different from those relating to training provision in general, though these tend to be some of the most common:

• Deal with the why – preclude any resistance by discussing with individuals at an early stage how they – and the organisation – will benefit from their development and how it relates to the bigger picture.
  
• Thoroughly brief trainers and facilitators about specific challenges concerning the group and individuals they’re going to be dealing with. For example, they may need to override communication and perception barriers in a diverse age group through mixing ages and setting special exercises.
  
• Tell less, ask more. As with all training, don’t assume! Asking individuals about their opinions, experiences and even prejudices and really listening to what they have to say is the most effective way of identifying and overcoming any barriers.
  
• Continuous learning. Ensure that ‘training’ is an ongoing process rather than a one-off event. Challenge individuals to apply what they have learnt, using it to train or mentor less advanced individuals. Recognise achievement and progress; the more that people feel that training is a privilege, not a punishment, the more committed they will be.

Racing towards the tipping point

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point (12), analyses how some ideas, trends and behaviours cross a threshold, ‘tip’ and take off, spreading like wildfire before becoming recognised as a ‘phenomenon’. Certainly in respect of the future workplace and the role of older workers, everything is increasingly moving towards such a tipping point to an extent that before too long the majority of employers will be scratching their heads and wondering ‘Why didn’t we see this coming?’

To quote Lord Leitch, (13): “The shifting age profile will create permanent shortages in the UK labour market. It will force organisations to re-think their employment practices. How they respond to this shift will determine their success in maintaining access to a viable pool of labour in an increasingly competitive environment.”

The tipping point is coming – and it’s coming soon.

Summary

Demographic trends are increasingly creating a shortage of younger skilled workers, a situation which statistical forecasts show will worsen over the next decade. This, combined with the Leitch Report’s demands for businesses to substantially improve their employee skills levels, means that developing older workers has now become a pressing issue for employers. Research and empirical evidence show that engaged and developed older workers are truly workplace ‘champions’ in terms of their skill, commitment, and reliability. However, the challenge lies in the fact that they are a highly diverse group with little in common but their age so that introducing standard training policies can be akin to ‘herding cats’. The optimum approach is to concentrate on effective performance management whilst developing an age neutral environment in which all employees are valued for their skills and attitudes rather than their status or age. In such a situation every individual has an equal opportunity to develop in a way which is appropriate to their own needs and that of the business as a whole.

References

1. The Leitch Review of Skills, Final Report 2006, HMSO
2. Office of National Statistics 2005/2006
3. A list of Employer Champions and useful case studies can be found on the Age Positive website at http://www.agepositive.gov.uk
4. National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, Adult Learners Week Survey 2006
5. McDowall A, Age and Gender Bias in the Allocation of Training and Development Budgets, University of Surrey and British Psychological Society, 2007.
6. Recruitment Confidence Index, Cranfield School of Management, November 2006
7. Managing Age, a guide to good employment practice, TUC/CIPD report 2007)
8. 2007 YouGov People Index employee engagement study
9. Opportunity Age – meeting the challenges of ageing in the twentyfirst century, DWP 200
10. The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For Awards see www.bestcompanies.com
11. 2007 YouGov People Index employee engagement study
12. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Abacus 2001
13. The Leitch Review of Skills, Final Report 2006, HMSO

[Published in Training Journal Sept 2007]